Moving the Needle

“If you want to lead people, you need to figure out what they care about and how you can move that needle.” The quote is from the mayor of one of America’s largest cities. It sounds good. It sounds like a politician. And as I think about this quote in the context of churches and ministries, it sounds wrong. Leaders in these settings certainly need to know what people care about. But if your leadership decisions are always based on pleasing people, I can almost guarantee that you won’t go where God wants you to go, and you probably won’t go much of anywhere at all. Thankfully Moses didn’t give the people a vote after they crossed the Red Sea. At that moment, their idea of “moving the needle” was to return to Egypt. Most ministry leaders have discovered the deep tension of staying connected with the people that are being led while holding tightly to a God-given vision. God’s plans generally require sacrifice. They involve going places that people might not choose to go. They require an attitude of putting the interests of others ahead of our own. Leading people to take these kinds of steps can be exceedingly difficult. In saying this, I am not endorsing a style of leadership in which you go to the mountaintop by yourself and then pronounce a decision that cannot be questioned. The leaders that I most admire hold to their convictions but also know that God speaks to and through others. As one leader told me, “I’m not going to claim a burning bush unless there’s been one.” Nor am I saying that leaders shouldn’t care about moving the needle. It is important to define what progress toward the vision looks like and to lead accordingly. So what am I saying? I’m saying that a popular opinion poll may be important for political leaders, but in ministry we need to lead others to care about something beyond themselves. Once you’ve done that, then you can work on moving the right needle. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>